BEIRUT, Lebanon

A Saudi businessman was reportedly kidnapped in Baalbek region in eastern Lebanon, local media said on Monday.

Unidentified individuals lured Hussein al-Shammari on Sunday to one of the hills of Baalbek for an offer to sell him a land, before they kidnapped him and asked for a ransom, media reports said.

The Lebanese army on Monday morning launched a search operation to locate the whereabouts of the businessman, they added.

According to the reports, the army raided a number of suspected sites and found a cache of weapons and ammunition at a house in the Al-Sharawneh neighborhood in the city of Baalbek.

There was no comment yet from Lebanese or Saudi authorities on the report.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat